Telangana Congmen threaten to quit party

NEW DELHI: The Andhra Pradesh government appears to be heading for a fresh crisis, with Congress MPs, ministers and legislators from Telangana threatening to resign en masse if the Srikrishna Committee does not recommend a separate state for the region.

The threat of mass resignation comes a day after the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) offered to merge with the Congress if a separate state is formed.

Reports from Hyderabad said Congress leaders from Telangana met in the Hyderabad to chalk out their strategy on the separate statehood demand. They asked the UPA government at the Centre to table a bill in parliament during the budget session for the formation of a separate state.

The leaders, including nine MPs, seven ministers, 15 members of assembly and four members of council said they were ready for any sacrifice to achieve a Telangana state.

"We are hoping that the Srikrishna Committee report will be in favour of the formation of Telangana state. If it does not, we will submit our resignations," senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member Keshava Rao told reporters. He said all MPs, ministers and legislators would send their resignations to Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

The meeting also decided that Congress MPs from the region would launch a hunger strike from Monday if the government failed to withdraw all cases against students and others who participated in the Telangana agitation late last year and early this year.

Sarve Satyanarayana said it would be fast unto death. The deadline set by the MPs for the government to withdraw all the cases is ending on Sunday evening. The meeting took note of TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao's latest offer. The leaders felt that they should go all out to achieve the separate state instead of allowing TRS and other groups to claim credit.

They noted that since KCR floated the TRS in 2000 only to revive the Telangana movement, the formation of separate state would make the party irrelevant.

They also decided to present their views before the central leadership while underlining the need to immediately carve out a separate state.

KCR made the offer at a meeting of government employees from Telangana. The meeting also asked the state government to send back all Central paramilitary forces called and deployed by it in Telangana ahead of the Srikrishna Committee report.

Minister Shankar Rao said he was ready for any sacrifice for the sake of Telangana.